Hello Community,
In the dynamic world of data management, ServiceNow plays a pivotal role, ensuring the integrity and availability of crucial information. Let's delve into the essential aspects of ServiceNow backups and restoration to understand how organizations can safeguard their data effectively.
- ServiceNow Backup Retention Period: Effective from May 8th, 2023, ServiceNow now retains full backups for a maximum of 14 days, a change from the previous 28-day retention period. This adjustment prompts a closer look at backup strategies to align with the updated timeframe.
- Creation of ServiceNow Backups: ServiceNow employs the advanced high availability (AHA) architecture to automatically generate both full and differential backups. Full backups occur every seven days, while differentials are created every 24 hours, ensuring a comprehensive and up-to-date snapshot of the instance.
- Understanding Full and Differential Backups: Distinguishing between full and differential backups is key. Full backups encompass the entire instance, while differentials capture recently changed data. However, it's crucial to note that differential backups are retained for only seven days, emphasizing the importance of a strategic backup approach.
- Checking Backup Creation Date: Users can effortlessly track backup creation dates by accessing the "List of backups for the instance" Service Catalog Item on the Now Support Portal, providing transparency and control over the backup timeline.
- Extending Backup Retention Period: Recognizing that ServiceNow's native backup architecture isn't designed for archival purposes, organizations requiring prolonged retention periods should explore purpose-built solutions. This is especially crucial in scenarios where traditional backup and recovery mechanisms are preferred.
- Restoring a ServiceNow Instance: When the need arises to restore a production instance, users can initiate the process by opening a case via the Now Support Portal. ServiceNow emphasizes that restoration from backup should be a last resort due to potential data loss and instance unavailability during the process.
- Timeframe for Restoring a ServiceNow Instance: The restoration process, taking at least as long as a full instance clone, involves blocking non-admin users, exporting delta data, initiating restoration, and creating backups to prevent data loss. It's essential to plan for potential downtime during this critical phase.
- Restoring with Purpose-Built Solutions: Purpose-built solutions provide organizations with extended backup and restore capacities beyond ServiceNow's 14-day limit. The restoration timeframe varies based on solution throughput and backup data volume, offering flexibility and control.
- Recovery Requests and Cautionary Notes: In the unfortunate event of data loss, the UT ServiceNow team can create a recovery ticket. ServiceNow cautions that restoring from backup is a last resort due to potential data loss and instance unavailability. It's a meticulous process, and estimating the time of completion is challenging.
In conclusion, a well-thought-out approach to ServiceNow backups, understanding the limitations, and exploring purpose-built solutions can empower organizations to navigate the data landscape effectively, ensuring resilience and continuity.
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- Prasad
